Jayanta Sinha, India’s minister of state for aviation, is the highest ranking politician to appear. “Big B”, as he is known, recently appeared in advertisements across India to promote the country’s new goods and services tax. Bachchan also featured in the Panama Papers release 18 months ago and is reportedly being investigated by the country’s income tax authorities. The revelations are even more embarrassing in a country where the government is desperately trying to drive up the number of people who pay income tax – currently just over 1%. If ruling party politicians can get away with using offshore accounts, ordinary Indians – especially the minority whose salaries qualify for income tax – may question how serious the government really is about eradicating black money.

Source: The Guardian November 05, 2017 22:01 UTC